The Pit of Success

Through a link Anne Marsan sent several of us today I saw the Pit of Success and had to share it with others.

The
Pit of Success: in stark contrast to a summit, a
peak, or a journey across a desert to find victory through many trials and
surprises, we want our customers to simply fall into winning practices by using
our platform and frameworks.  To
the extent that we make it easy to get into trouble we fail.

           
-Rico Mariani, MS Research MindSwap Oct 2003.  

Running Ubuntu on Vista

I was able, with very little pain, to install Ubuntu on Vista. Using Jay Wren's advice I took a look at VMWare and downloaded their $189.00 VMWare Workstation for evaluation. VMWare Workstation setups up 1 or more Virtual Machines that can then be used to host Guest operating systems.

First I downloaded and installed VMWare Workstation, then I downloaded the Ubuntu ISO. VMWare allowed me to mount the Ubuntu ISO as a CD in the new VM. The VM booted like any computer, found the ISO and booted right into the Ubuntu Install. After that it was like a normal Ubuntu install, in other words, amazingly easy.

I'm working on the following projects around the home:

Brewery

My brewing equipment is spread all over the place. I need to clean out my GarageOffice (pronounced Garagafis) and get things back together. My target is to brew on or before September 1.

I want to pick up the following equipment.

Ferminator - 14 Gallon - 1-3 weeks delivery - http://www.northernbrewer.com/ferm-std.html $584.99

Therminator - $194.99 - http://www.northernbrewer.com/wort-chillers.html

The Ferminator is the high priority, although I would love to throw down for the Therminator as well. I'm completely over the fun of moving beer and cleaning, always cleaning. I've been looking at buying a fermentor for quite some time now. The chiller is is awesome and I'll get it eventually. I'll need to borrow a chiller though since I blew mine up.

Fountain/Pond

I want to replace my current pond (which is a rain barrel in a baby pool) with something a little more elegant. I purchased the following from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Flex-Pond-Kit-Gallon-Model/dp/B000N4PQR0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=garden&qid=1218399280&sr=1-1 - 90 in.L X 51 in W X 20 in.H -formed pond for $169.99

I think between me and my brilliant friends, we should be able to come up with a water fall that's at least as effective as the current rain barrel with holes drilled in the top.

Rain water capture

This is a little tougher. I'm still in the design phase. My two fountains and the new pool can hold about 250 gallons of rainwater, so I guess my best bet is to just plumb from my eaves to my pond. Sounds like a job for my friend Kip (Journey man plumber and scotch drinker extraordinaire)

I work with Jay Wren

Some of you are probably saying to yourselves "I'm so sorry, are you looking for a job?". A lot more of you are probably saying "That's so cool, how do I get a job at SRT Solutions?".

No matter what your thoughts, you have to admit, being able to tap Jay's knowledge (which normally involves me standing in front of his desk and talking continuously until he removes his headphones) is a huge benefit to getting software done and getting it done right.

Just last week Jay saved me literally days of work. Dianne Marsh and I where stuck on a testing issue using Microsoft Test. The application we where testing was using the AppDomain to find the private bin directory. This was an important part of how the application worked and needed to be preserved. For those of you have used the MS Test environment that ships with Visual Studio, you might know that it creates a brand new environment every time it runs. That new environment includes a brand new private bin directory. This made MSTest a very poor choice for our testing solution. Dianne and I where dead in the water, then Jay came to the rescue with NUnit. We went from despair to success (that green bar is something we Java developers need to survive).

Thanks Jay.

p.s. Jay is also the one who hooked me up with Resharper, which is a great way to make Visual Studio development palatable and immediately productive for those that love IntelliJ or Eclipse.

Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority Switches Focus

Recently I read a complaint that the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority had become a pocketbook for the Mayor and City Council. It was written by a former AADDA board member who felt the Authority should be building more parking lots.

It looks like instead of parking lots, the Authority is focusing on encouraging downtown green development. In a post by Judy McGovern of the Ann Arbor news http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/06/ann_arbor_dda_shifts_focus_of.html, she describers how the DDA is switching it's focus to ensuring that Ann Arbor building owners have the funding and the leadership to make downtown buildings energy efficient.

The Ann Arbor Rail Project

If you're driving 23 south into Ann Arbor, this Bi-Level Passenger Rail Car could be in your future.

Details are still hard to come by, but more info has come to light about the proposed Ann Arbor rail project.

According to an article in MetroMode, the plan seems to be to start in the fall with a single train running between two temporary stations, one in Ann Arbor on Plymouth Rd. and another at the border between Washtenaw and Livingston counties. The Great Lakes Central Rail Road, the company that owns these tracks, would make six trips in the morning and six trips in the evening. A trip takes 20 minutes from station to station.

Thanks to this MDot Rail Map, you can see the basic train route along the black line from Howell to Ann Arbor.

The train would have three passenger cars, each of which is a double decker car that can hold somewhere around 500 passengers. That means each trip, the train could carry around 1500 passengers. The capacity of the system would then be 9000 commuters a day if every train was full. That's 9000 one way in the morning and then 9000 back again in the evening.

Ann Arbor plans to provide bus service to and from the temporary station. I'm not sure about the other end of the line in Livingston, possibly that would be more like a park and ride.

Depending on how well the service works, there are plans to take it farther south into Saline and possibly Monroe and farther North to Howell.

I had to stop calling this the Ann Arbor to Howell rail project once I heard the latest news. I've opted for just calling it the Ann Arbor Rail Project for now.

My Wife is on Wikipedia, is yours?

Yes, it's true, Mary Heitzeg, my wife, who is not only hot, but smart, is on wikipedia. Not in some obscure post either. Just check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine.